Bound

Chapter Three

The sun stung Evadine's eyes as the guards led her and Prince Levon through the hallways. The halls were buzzing with tension. Or maybe it was the shaking of her own legs.

Her parents were dead.

Her lungs refused to fill with air as they walked through the halls that were so familiar to her. But today, she was a stranger, the guards' hands clutching her shoulders. She wanted to scream at them to let her go, to tell her that it was all a lie, or some joke, but she couldn't find the strength.

She knew where they were going. She'd been present in the courtroom many times to observe and learn. But she'd never entered it as a criminal.

The room was filled with people Evadine knew, but who looked at her as if she were a stranger. Before her were the judges, around her ministers and noblemen. All of them looked stern, shifting in their seats uncomfortably. They'd never seen their royalty put on trial before, at least not in their lifetime.

The guards made Evadine stand in the middle of the room, Prince Levon next to her. She searched for her parents, for the seat that belonged to the king, certain that she'd find him there. Why was it empty?

"Where's my father?" she asked, not able to keep the question inside. "I demand to know what's going on."

One of the judges stood up. "Your Highness Princess Evadine, Your Highness Prince Levon, you are on trial for the murder of the King and Queen."

Her heart sank again at those words. "They can't be dead." She sounded more childlike than she wanted to.

"We found strands of hair and other forms of physical evidence. The mage has determined your presence and the prince's in the King's quarters at the time of his death."

Evadine looked around for the mage, but he was nowhere to be found. He wouldn't betray her; court mages weren't capable of that. Surely he'd clear things up. Surely he'd tell her what was really going on.

"I will not be accused of such things." She swallowed in the hopes that it would keep her voice from trembling. "I was attacked. I—"

"You have given your statement, and so has the prince."

"What?" What statement?

"You and the prince have conspired to murder the king. You have both confessed."

"No, I have not." What was going on here?

"His Highness Prince Paltin has asked for leniency for the both of you. Per his demand, you will not be executed. Instead, you will be stripped of your titles and sent away to find a home elsewhere, never to return here."

"You're exiling me?" They couldn't. It just wasn't possible.

"That is correct."

"Where is my brother?" Prince Levon asked. But he didn't get an answer as the guards started pulling them away.

"You can't do this," Evadine said. "I didn't do anything!" But nobody listened as she was dragged off to a room on the side. The room where convicts were dealt with after their judgment. 

She shouldn't be here. And yet, here she was.

And so were her brother and the mage.

Paltin looked at her with red and swollen eyes, fresh tears streaking his face. "How could you..."

"I didn't do anything," Evadine said, begged, almost. "I don't know what's going on. I swear I didn't do it."

He turned away from her. He actually turned away.

"You know I couldn't have done this. Paltin, look at me!"

One of the guards removed the chains around her arms, but he didn't let go yet. He held her arm close to Prince Levon's. The mage stepped forward with a golden wire in his hands.

"Why did you lie to the judges?" Evadine asked him. He shouldn't be able to. There were magical contracts, ways to prevent it.

He didn't answer and instead wrapped the wire around Evadine's right arm and the Prince's left one, tying them together. It glowed for a moment as he muttered a spell.

"You can't do this." Evadine tried to pull her arm away, but the guard's grip was too firm. "You're supposed to serve us!"

"Evadine, don't do this," Paltin said without looking at her. "Don't make this even harder..."

The mage stepped back and Prince Levon tried to pull his arm away, but their wrists were bound together. "What's this?" he asked, not sounding as confident as before. "Untie us!"

Evadine reached for her brother, but the guards pulled her back. "Paltin, please."

"Farewell, sister..."

The guards led them away and Evadine didn't even hear the things Prince Levon said next to her; pleas or curses or maybe both. Her brother didn't look back at her before he disappeared from her sight. And just like that, she was a princess no more.

~~*~~

The carriage moved fast, bumping them around. Evadine considered jumping out. Not that the two guards opposite her would let her.

The carriage stopped and Evadine and Prince Levon were forced out. They were in the middle of the woods. Way too far from home.

The guard pointed in the distance. "You keep heading that way. It's the fastest way out of the kingdom. And don't try to turn back around. There are guards posted everywhere to catch you."

"Why can't you take us farther?" Prince Levon asked. "To the edge of the kingdom?"

"We have our orders. Now, Your Highness, please go."

When they didn't start moving immediately, the guards raised their spears to urge them forward. The Prince started walking first, pulling Evadine along.

She barely noticed the world around her, or the tears that started streaming at last when she was leaving my kingdom behind her. She didn't even care that Prince Levon was there to see. Her mind and body were numb even as she tripped over every other branch.

They walked for a while, and slowly Evadine's mind cleared up. She looked at the chain around their wrists. "Do you know how we can get that off?"

Prince Levon followed her gaze. "No idea. But I don't think they meant for us to take it off."

But why? Why would they want to keep them together, slowing them down even, if the goal was for them to get away? And why weren't they taken to the edge of the kingdom, but instead dropped off in the middle of a forest, with no one in sight? How were they supposed to make it to anywhere like this?

Unless...

"Prince Levon?"

"Yes?"

"If you want to be alive in five minutes, we have to start running now."